Friday, April 5, 2013

E: Oh, the places you'll go!

It's Day 4 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge, in which I'm focusing on overseas destinations I've visited. This one will be a quickie in comparison to my D post yesterday.

Exeter, England, November 1997

When Chris was just a bit over a year old, we took him to the UK for the first time. We drove to visit our friend Cath in Torquay (see T for more info), and on the way we drove through Exeter, which is where Mike went to university. We didn't really stay long, but we drove through the town, which seemed like it would be a nice place to attend university.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1998 (I think!)I have been through all my boxes of photos, but nowhere can I find our photos of Scotland! Maybe the Loch Ness Monster nabbed them.

When we were first married and would visit the UK, I asked that we always visit one new place. Over the years we've taken side trips to Yorkshire, Bath, Oxford, London, Paris, Torquay, the Cotswolds, Derby/Nottingham, etc. And one year we went up to Scotland with Mike's mum. We stayed in a rental near Loch Tay, and one day we took a day trip into Edinburgh. I remember before our trip that we quizzed Mike's Aunty Helen about the place where she, her sisters, and Mike's dad grew up in Edinburgh, but she didn't seem to want to talk about their upbringing. Mike was guessing that it wasn't a very salubrious area and that's why she was being cagey. Even though they were Irish, Mike's dad and all his sisters have/had strong Scottish accents. Sadly, only two of Mike's aunties are still alive.

We met up with some Exeter friends of Mike's who live in Edinburgh--Richard and Maggie--who have three sons. At the time, Chris was only 2 or 3, and the thought of having three sons seemed preposterous to me!! Such is life. We went to Edinburgh Castle and walked around the town, but didn't stay long before heading back to Loch Tay.

Oh, lovely Edinburgh! What a beautiful city it is. I regularly go up to the Edinburgh Festival to enjoy the plays, comedy and music of the Fringe. I was raised in Derby but spent most of my adult life in Yorkshire, until recently when I moved to live just outside London. It seems you have visited many of my favourite places in this country! Great post - thanks for sharing your stories with us :0)

I love Scotland but have only visited once, need to get up there again. There is so much to see on the British Isles and to visit one new place when coming over is a great idea. Have fun with the rest of the challenge :)